SPEEDING UP THE ATTACK: THE MARSHALLS

[Music] con [Music] the epic battle at Tarawa in November 1943 brought home to the American public the cost of the war against Japan though teraa had been one at a great price the Lessons Learned there were to prevent the loss of other thousands of American fighting men in battles on other Pacific Islands in January 1944 an invasion of the Marshall Islands was undertaken an invasion whose success depended in large measure on the experience gained at tarwa in the Central Pacific the Marshall Islands constituted a block in the path of the US Drive Westward if that drive was to be successful several strategically located Islands in that group must be seized in Hawaii Admiral Chester Nimitz commander-in chief of Pacific Fleet and everyone in his command were vitally concerned with the preparations for the forthcoming assault on the marshals for the Central Pacific offensive begun so auspiciously with the victories in the Gilbert Islands at Mon and taroa depended for its success on a quick follow up the planned invasion of atol in the next major island chain the marshals was to be followed by further assaults on Islands still far to westward in a giant isent hopping operation which would take American fighting forces to the very doorstep of Japan itself in January 1944 the high command in the Central Pacific Theater checked carefully over final preparations for the all important invasion of the marshals the amphibious assault Force left Hawaii behind and headed for the marshals in late January stealthily the fleet moved into enemy Waters Gunners in the mightiest Invasion Fleet yet mounted prepared to knock out enemy defenses on the target Islands this time they planned to see to it that no one could possibly consider the naval shelling too light on January 29th the warships began their softening up of quadulan ATL for weeks liberators of the seventh Air Force pounded the atols and the eastern and Central Marshals [Music] [Music] at quadulan the world's largest Coral atol the main objectives were three small Islands Roy and namur linked by an artificial Causeway were to be seized by the fourth Marine Division on route to the invasion of the islands Marine officers familiarized the men with all available details of their objective their size shape and defenses at quadulan atol the fourth Marine Division went into action for the first time most of the men had arrived only recently from Marine training camps in the United States For the First Time The Assault waves took their own supplies with them H hour delayed almost 2 hours was only minutes away the men would be real veterans soon [Music] [Music] as the first waves of Marines neared The Landing beaches the carrier pilots gave the enemy a last minute once over the men were prepared for another taroa American troops were storming the first piece of prear Japanese territory and from all indications the enemy planned to hold on to [Music] it the fourth division Marines were loaded for Action they were prepared for the worst it was tough on the beach but it was no tarer although enemy resistance was lighter than expected the battle was no pushover the area was still far from secure the troops at quadulan benefited enormously from The Experience other American fighting men had had on similar at TOs and the Gilberts some 2 months before the pattern for dealing with a dugin enemy on a tiny sand spit of an island had been successfully established the Marines took every precaution in dealing with the fanatical Defenders of Roy and namur the Marines took some prisoners at Roy and LaMore but they represented only a small percentage of the enemy Force which defended the island 264 Japanese were captured on the two islands but there were still many pockets of enemy resistance on Roy the principal objective was the enemy [Music] Airfield taking it was no simple task during the afternoon the battle raged on by late afternoon the back of enemy resistance on Roy was broken this time the naval and air bombardment had achieved some notable results the airfield on Roy was seized on dday afternoon the strips had constituted an important launching platform for enemy planes a number of the Japanese planes had been in no condition to leave the island before it fell namore was rested from the Enemy by the early afternoon of the second day on that island to the sturdy Japanese blouses had proved unable to withstand the US bombardment the enemy defenses were a favorite subject for combat artists who sometimes accompanied the assault troops on Pacific invasions the black houses proved equally fascinating to every Marine on the island the enemy High command had ordered Roy and namore defended to The Last Man Marine General Holland Smith in command of the ground forces in the marshals was well pleased with the performance of the untested fourth Marine Division the general was favorably impressed too with the job the Navy warships had done in other operations he was not usual satisfied with the Navy's bombardment but at quadulan he felt they had done well by his amphibious forces the Japanese who garrisoned Roy and namur hadn't believed it possible for their stronghold to fall to an American overwater assault the most highly prized momento throughout the Pacific was a Japanese Samurai sword usually carried only by high ranking enemy officers offers there was plenty of Japanese money for the Invaders but no place to spend it the men who'd made the assault hadn't had a chance to take their shoes off since leaving the transports for the invasion they almost felt civilized again with the battle won US forces had reached another Milestone on the road to Tokyo many of the men who had helped achieve that forward step had been cut down during the battle in all cases possible positive identification of the Dead was sought by the graves registration section of the fourth Marine Division casualties were light compared with the figures of American losses on taroa but 190 Marines lost their lives at Roy and namur in the struggle to establish a foothold for US forces and the marshals each new victory on the drive across the Pacific was marked by still another burial service and the dedication of another square of Hallowed Ground thousands of miles from home the men who survived felt a very real sense of loss for a strong feeling of kinship Springs up between men and battle for a common cause the dead would not be forgotten by The Men Who had fought with them side by [Applause] side meanwhile the US Army's seventh division was occupied With the Enemy on the southernmost island of quadulan ATL on February 1st in midm morning the assault waves moved into the beach these GIS had last seen action and the Illusions in quite a different setting World War II was the first major war to be thoroughly covered by combat cameramen to record the war on film Motion Picture cameramen went ashore with the first waves of assault troops and stayed with them in the thick of the fight the seventh division GIS pushed across the island against spotty enemy opposition on that first day on quadulan us casualties were light less than 70 men were hit by enemy [Music] fire with the tanks pacing the advance the gis took the Island yard by yard the soldiers pressed the attack in the face of stiffening enemy resistance tanks played a major role in the victories in the marshals but it was still the men with the rifles who seized and held the territory [Music] on quadulan iset the coordination of tanks and infantry operating together had still not been perfected but the advance was well executed it was no easy job to overwhelm all the enemy troops on the island for 5 days the seventh division GIS battled the enemy on quadulan and for 5 days the enemy had to be located and blasted out of his hold [Music] [Music] more and more enemy soldiers were being knocked out of the battle by the determined GIS enemy casualties mounted steadily the weary GIS continued the attack against a well- entrenched [Music] enemy as on Roy and namur to the north the Japanese Garrison on quadulan iset had solid positions from which to carry on their stubborn defense of the island in the process of seizing the iset from the enemy 1214 American soldiers were hit on quadin the lightness of American casualties could be traced to the more careful preparation on the part of both the Army and Navy on February 5th the battle on quadulan iset had been won after the spirited struggle 170 enemy troops were taken prisoner all that was left of a Garrison force of some 4,000 the enemy had lost the three key islands of one of the most strategic atoles in the Central Pacific the defeated troops were beginning to have a few doubts about the invincibility of the Japanese War Machine in February 1944 US forces pushed deeper into enemy territory to the extreme Western end of the Marshall Islands chain any we talk at all was invaded in mid February by two regiments one Marine One Army the 22nd Marine regiment landed first on njbi island and in a furious dayong battle knocked out a strong enemy Garrison the Marines on and jebby were seeing action for the first time and they acquitted themselves well tanks were used to good advantage in the Marine assault on n jebi The three principal islands of any we talk atall were successfully seized by the five battalions of Marines and soldiers in 7 days [Music] on any we talk iset US soldiers and Marines choked off enemy resistance but not without suffering some losses many of the casualties Among The Riflemen were attributable to the light bombardment of this particular Island on Parry iset 22nd regiment Marines fought almost a duplicate of their earlier battle on enbi except that the enemy on Parry held out a bit more stubbornly but the Marines mopped it up on the second day during the final stages of the fight to seize the major islands of any we talk all work on the air strips was being carried forward often under enemy Fire by the hardworking members of a Navy service known as the CB organized early in World War II the Navy's construction battalions achieved miracles in building air strips on islands all across the Pacific in unbelievably short periods of time and under any conditions the CBS never wasted any time the job was always done the quickest possible [Music] way and the CBS never lost an opportunity to take advantage of whatever came their way including enemy equipment on any we talk at all a strip capable of accommodating four squadrons of Fighters was hurriedly finished the speed with which the CBS could build an air strip on any kind of terrain was a constant source of Wonder to the fighting men in the area even the Army was impressed with the CB's accomplishments on the Pacific the work of the construction battalions on islands all across the Pacific was greatly admired by the Marine Corps charged with seizing and holding those bases the CB's most vital functions included the construction and repair of air strips of coral and sand for on the speed with which those air strips were put into operation depended the speed of the continuing Advance toward Japan the majority of the quarter of a million men in the CBS had had experience in some phase of construction work before entering the service that experience proved invaluable to the US fighting forces but even the most knowledgeable construction men were faced with many completely new problems on the islands of the Pacific once their job was done the CBS never had long to wait to see the results of their work [Music] windmill washing machines became familiar sites on the islands where the CBS were on the job just one evidence of the versatility of the Navy's newest Branch but aids to comfortable living in the tropics were only spare time projects after the air strips were built or repaired on an island base the CBS fell to work on the construction of the necessary buildings for the forces which would Garrison the new base the job of creating a camp the side of a small city was usually only a few weeks work for a battalion of CBS their favorite boast we do the difficult immediately The Impossible takes a little longer was not considered an overstatement by the troops in the Pacific the housing of the fighting men was only one of the CB's responsibilities one of the impossible jobs they performed was providing ice at Tropical Pacific bases whatever the need the CBS could be counted on to fill it and without delay their philosophy was summed up in a standard two-word answer to any request can do the US now had possession of two key atol in the marshals group those two quick victories on a few Sandy Islands made a considerable difference in the areas of control exercised by the two principal Waring powers in the Pacific for from the Marshals the US Air Force was in excellent position to launch attacks against the carollyn islands and in particular the enemy's powerful base at tront from quadulan in midm March seventh Air Force bombers began a series of strikes against that enemy stronghold [Music] the liberators could make the trip from quadulan to truck and return in less than 9 hours if the weather was favorable for that period the seventh Air Force planes were reinforced by bombers of the 13th Air Force operating from South Pacific bases the target the group of islands called truck was the most important enemy staging area between Japan and the Southwest Pacific the Legend of trucks invincibility was about to be punctured [Music] effectively the liberators were depositing the new 2,000lb bombs on the enemy's base the attacks were highly successful in less than 4 months once Mighty truck was to become virtually useless to the [Music] enemy in a single month in early 1944 US Air Force planes dropped a total of 1,000 813 tons of bombs on truck the enemy's stronghold was reduced to a mere shell in the Southwest Pacific as 1943 turned into 44 the US fighting forces centered their attention on the bismar archipelago and the northern coast of New Guinea the road which led back to the Philippines [Music] [Music] andice in the fre let every feel your